Reinventing, Replanting: Reminder!

by Joyce-Anne Locking

This is the time of year we usually concentrate on getting in shape. We start a walking program or take up golf or tennis, canoeing, boating or other outdoor activities. We want to get fit and fit into our summer wardrobe once again. We strive to get ourselves ready to enjoy the summer by toning our muscles and shaping our plans. One thing we ought to include in this preparing for summer fitness program is our mind. Is the mind a muscle too? I just watched a television interview that suggested the mind is indeed a muscle, a muscle that can be programmed much in the same way as a computer! A mind can be set, somewhat like a clock, to begin routine tasks daily or to begin to change old habits into new ones. New habits, experts suggest, take twenty one days to form. Once we continue to practice a new activity each day for twenty one days, we have started a new habit.

As I checked the definition of "mind" according to my copy of The Concise Oxford Dictionary, I didn't find any relation of mind to muscle. I like the saying: "we must make up our mind." It seems the mind is more like an empty vacuum of untouchable, invisible space we ourselves fill with the thoughts we choose to think. According to Oxford, the mind is a "direction of thoughts or desires" or a "way of thinking and feeling." Also described as the "seat of consciousness, thought, volition & feeling", intellectual powers are mentioned, as is presence, or mental qualities. My favourite definition of the "mind" is this one: "supposed rudimentary form of psychical existence regarded as the reality of which matter is an aspect."

In other words, it suggests that matter is an aspect of the mind! Although the brain is usually the part of the body referred to as matter, it seems the mind also plays a part in inventing or reinventing what matters in our lives. We have the ability to reinvent our goals by taking some time to write down what they are. Think up a way to set your goals into action. Reinventing is an action in itself. Take up your goals and replant them in your mind just as you do the replanting of some of those wintered over plants from last summer. Water your goals by taking baby steps toward their blossoming. Dust off your dreams and allow the summer air to flower your goals with brightly coloured new ideas. Above all, enjoy this season as it is the one we waited for all winter long!